There had been reading at table, especially from two books, Pope Gregory The Great's account of St. Scholastica in his Dialogues and my own The World Of Washington Irving.

The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456 ; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great.

Pope Gregory I repeats the concept, articulated over a century earlier by Gregory of Nyssa that the saved suffer purification after death, in connection with which he wrote of " purgatorial flames ".

The same word in adjectival form ( purgatorius-a-um, cleansing ), which appears also in non-religious writing, was already used by Christians such as Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory I to refer to an after-death cleansing.

Alfred's first translation was of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, which he prefaced with an introduction explaining why he thought it necessary to translate works such as this one from Latin into English.

This order is known from a bull of Pope Gregory XI addressed to the monks of the church of St Ambrose outside Milan.

In 1375 Pope Gregory XI gave them the Rule of St Augustine, with set of constitutions.

Therefore, Pope Gregory IX requested him to give up this practice.

On 20 August 1233, Andrew had a meeting with the legate of Pope Gregory IX in the woods of Bereg, and they made an agreement which ensured the privileges of the clergy.

Pope Gregory VII canonized Ælfheah in 1078, with a feast day of 19 April.

The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I, who happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as slaves in the Roman market.

He was one of the seven cardinals who, in May 1408, deserted Pope Gregory XII, and, with those following Antipope Benedict XIII from Avignon, convened the Council of Pisa, of which Cossa became the leader.

John XXIII was acknowledged as pope by France, England, Bohemia, Prussia, Portugal, parts of the Holy Roman Empire, and numerous Northern Italian city states, including Florence and Venice ; however, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII was regarded as pope by the Kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Scotland and Gregory XII was still favored by Ladislaus of Naples, Carlo I Malatesta, the princes of Bavaria, Louis III, Elector Palatine, and parts of Germany and Poland.

During the third session, rival Pope Gregory XII authorized the council as well.

The first Archbishop of Canterbury was St Augustine ( not to be confused with St Augustine of Hippo ), who arrived in Kent in 597 AD, having been sent by Pope Gregory I on a mission to the English.

It seems that Pope Gregory, ignorant of recent developments in the former Roman province, including the spread of the Pelagian heresy, had intended the new archiepiscopal sees for England to be established in London and York.

Pope Gregory XVI rescinded this privilege and reserved to the Pope the right of creation of such knights ( Acta Pont.

Apart from a short poem attributed to Mark of Monte Cassino, the only ancient account of Benedict is found in the second volume of Pope Gregory I's four-book Dialogues, thought to have been written in 593.

In Gregory ’ s day, history was not recognized as an independent field of study ; it was a branch of grammar or rhetoric, and historia ( defined as ‘ story ’) summed up the approach of the learned when they wrote what was, at that time, considered ‘ history .’ Gregory ’ s Dialogues Book Two, then, an authentic medieval hagiography cast as a conversation between the Pope and his deacon Peter, is designed to teach spiritual lessons.

In the monastic library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians, including works by Basil, Cassian, John Chrysostom, Isidore of Seville, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Pope Gregory I, Ambrose of Milan, Cassiodorus, and Cyprian.

Bede was the first to refer to Jerome, Augustine, Pope Gregory and Ambrose as the four Latin Fathers of the Church.

** Saint Pope Pius V

* Pope Adrian V ( c. 1205 – 1276 )

In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V the right to reduce " Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers " to hereditary slavery.

As Pope Martin V supported Sforza, Alfonso switched religious allegiance to the Aragonese antipope Benedict XIII.

In 1589 Pope Sixtus V united to the Congregation of St Ambrose the monasteries of a group known as the " Brothers of the Apostles of the Poor Life " ( or " Apostolini " or " Brothers of St. Barnabas "), whose houses were in the province of Genoa and in the March of Ancona.

The union was confirmed by Pope Paul V in 1606, at which time the congregation added the name of St. Barnabas to its title, adopted new constitutions, divided its houses into four provinces, two of them, St Clement's and St Pancras's, being in Rome.

* 1314 – Pope Clement V ( b. 1264 )

Pope Martin V protested in vain against the inscription on the sarcophagus: " John the former pope ".

This Felix was later confused with a Roman martyr named Felix, with the result that he was included in lists of the Popes as Felix II and that the succeeding Popes of the same name ( Pope Felix III and Pope Felix IV ) were given wrong numerals, as was Antipope Felix V.

While Pope Stephen V supported Guy, crowning him Roman Emperor in 891, Arnulf threw his support behind Berengar.

By the time of Pope Martin V their signature was made essential to the validity of the acts of the chancery ; and they obtained in course of time many important privileges.

Pope Martin V ( Constit.

Pope Paul V, who in early manhood was a member of the College ( Const.

* Pope Celestine V ( 1215 – 96, r. 1294 )

* Pope Urban V ( 1310 – 70, r. 1362 – 70 )

After the murder in that year of Henry III of France, Pope Sixtus V sent Enrico Caetani as legate to Paris to negotiate with the Catholic League of France, and chose Bellarmine to accompany him as theologian.

He received some votes in the 1605 conclaves which elected Pope Leo XI, Pope Paul V, and in 1621 when Pope Gregory XV was elected, but only in the second conclave of 1605 was he papabile.

Under Pope Paul V ( reigned 1605 – 1621 ), a major conflict arose between Venice and the Papacy.

In 1589, by the bull Cum pro nostri temporali munere, Pope Sixtus V re-organised the choir of St Peter's, Rome specifically to include castrati.

Pope Sixtus V limited the number of cardinals to 70, composed of six cardinal bishops, 50 cardinal priests, and 14 cardinal deacons ; however, Pope John XXIII began to exceed the overall limit of 70, and this continued under his successors.